A 65-year-old man wanted for a quarter-century in the fatal stabbing of his former girlfriend and her partner is back in Phoenix, extradited from Mexico and handed over to local authorities on Friday. Abraham Rafael Pedroza-Garcia had been a fugitive since a warrant was first issued for his arrest on September 13, 2000, following the April 1, 2000 killings inside his ex-girlfriend's home.
According to the U.S. Marshals Service, Pedroza-Garcia was brought back to Arizona without incident on September 11, 2026, and transferred to local authorities. As reported by FOX 10 Phoenix, investigators say Pedroza-Garcia entered his former girlfriend's home, stabbed her partner, and fatally stabbed his ex-girlfriend during the attack. He now faces pending charges of murder, aggravated assault, and burglary.
A Cold Case Comes Back to Life
The case sat dormant for more than two decades until Phoenix Police and the Maricopa County Attorney's Office asked the U.S. Marshals Service WANTED Violent Offender Task Force to adopt the investigation in 2023, according to KTAR. That referral reactivated a warrant that had produced no arrests since 2000. The reactivation reflects a broader pattern in Arizona, where the state Attorney General's Office in January 2025 launched a dedicated cold case homicide unit using DNA and forensic genealogy tools to help local departments crack older files, according to Courthouse News Service. Phoenix Police itself has run a Homicide Cold Case Squad since 1992, tasked with revisiting unsolved killings as new leads and technology emerge, per the City of Phoenix.
Once the task force took on the case, investigators on the Marshals' District of Arizona Mexico Investigative Liaison Team developed information in 2024 placing Pedroza-Garcia in Mexico, per investigators, kicking off the diplomatic extradition process. Mexican judicial authorities issued their own arrest warrant under the international treaty process in April 2026, and Mexican law enforcement physically apprehended him the following month, in May 2026.
Extradition Hurdles and Pending Charges
Cases like this one routinely run into a specific legal snag when the underlying charge could carry the death penalty. Article 8 of the 1978 U.S.-Mexico Extradition Treaty allows Mexico to refuse extradition in potential capital cases unless the United States formally assures that the death penalty will not be sought or carried out, according to a report from the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies. The dossier does not specify whether such assurances were exchanged in Pedroza-Garcia's case.
Under Arizona law, first-degree murder is a Class 1 felony punishable by death or life imprisonment, and it can be charged either through premeditated intent or under the felony murder rule when a killing occurs during a residential burglary, per AZ Defenders. The aggravated assault charge Pedroza-Garcia faces can apply under Arizona Revised Statutes § 13-1204 when an assault involves a deadly weapon, causes serious physical injury, or happens inside a residence, according to Feldman Royle Ahl. Because the case involves a former romantic partner, Arizona law also allows for a domestic violence designation under ARS § 13-3601, which can add mandatory counseling and federal firearm restrictions upon conviction, per Matthew Lopez Law, PLLC.
Part of a Pattern of Fugitive Returns
Pedroza-Garcia's case echoes another recent Hoodline story involving a Maryvale bar shooting fugitive who also fled to Mexico before being extradited and ultimately sentenced to 18 years. It also follows a separate Phoenix cold case earlier this year in which an arrest made in Tijuana and a subsequent extradition unraveled after a facial recognition identification fell apart. Those cases underscore how much cross-border coordination is now shaping the resolution of Phoenix's oldest unsolved homicides.
For now, Pedroza-Garcia remains in Arizona custody facing the pending charges outlined by the Marshals Service. The dossier does not indicate a scheduled court date, and it remains unclear whether his defense will challenge the original 2000 warrant or the extradition process itself.
